Complications after Displaced Talar Neck Fracture: Results from a Case Series and a Critical Review of Literature

Introduction: Talar fractures are uncommon injuries, whose outcome is often characterized by the onset of serious complications. The aims of the present study are: 1) to review the available evidence concerning the outcome and complications of talar neck fractures; 2) to describe the clinical results and the rate of post-op complications in a series of patients treated surgically after talar fracture-dislocations. Materials and methods: The review of the literature was performed on the Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science databases and aimed at identifying clinical trials with at least 10 patients and dealing with surgical management of talar fracture-dislocation (Hawkins grade II to IV). All the papers were analyzed to extract data concerning common complications such as non-union, mal-union, infection, osteonecrosis and osteoarthtritis. The clinical arm of this paper included 26 patients (19 men and 7 women), who underwent fixation of displaced talar fracture by cannulated screws and were retrospectively evaluated, both clinically and radiographically, at a mean 51.2 ± 23.4 months of follow-up. Results: The evaluation through the AOFAS score revelead a loss of functional performance with respect to the pre-injury status. Four patients were re-operated within final follow up, whereas the remaining 22 presented excellent results in 2 cases, good results in 4 cases, fair results in 11 cases and poor results in 5 cases. Osteoarthritis and osteonecrosis incidence were 51.9% and 25.9% respectively. Sixteen studies were included in the review and it was confirmed that the most frequent complication was posttraumatic OA, followed by osteonecrosis and mal-union. A variable range in percentage of complications described should be ascribed to the low quality of trials currently available. Conclusion: Displaced talar fracture are challenging to treat and the outcomes at middle-term are often modest. Looking at complications, the present case series and the review of literature revealed that the most common one is peritalar OA. Osteonecrosis, traditionally regarded as the most fearsome adverse event, is relevant but less frequent than OA.